"Our 2006 outlook reflects a difficult year for both toys and licensing," said Morton Handel, chairman of the comic-book publisher.

Net income for the quarter fell to $23.4 million, or 23 cents a share, from $34.4 million, or 30 cents a share. Total revenue fell to $81.1 million, from $135.2 million.

The company owns the licensing rights to characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-men. It said revenue from agreements to use its characters in video games was strong, offsetting weakness in sales to toy manufacturers.

In addition, Marvel forecast lower 2006 revenues from movies and said it expected no contribution from its Spider-Man merchandising partnership, which brought in more than $20 million in 2005.

Marvel forecast 2006 earnings of 37 cents to 52 cents a share on revenue of $270 million to $300 million. Analysts polled by Thomson/First Call had been expecting $1.13 in earnings per share and $415 million in revenue.